If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ. You'll find answers to the frequently asked questions as well as basic rules. No need to register unless you would like to participate, although some images will only show if you are registered/logged-in.

You will need to register
before you can post: click the red register link or the register tab, above, right.

The WoodenBoat Forum is sponsored by WoodenBoat Publications, publisher of WoodenBoat magazine since 1974. To get WoodenBoat delivered to your door or computer, mobile device of choice, etc, click WB Subscriptions.

Selling/self promotion postings are verboten on the Forum. To advertise, take a look at WoodenBoat Advertising, or use your Google Adwords account if you want to advertise on the Forum.

Re: Scientific knowledge

Originally Posted by Peerie Maa

Should that not be inflated goats bladder shaped like a man in a blanket?
C'mon, think it through.

Okay. Based on the average weight of a cured goat bladder, how much helium would it need to hold to float? Would one bladder be large enough, or is it a composite balloon we’re talking here?
Seams sealed with pitch?

Re: Scientific knowledge

Originally Posted by amish rob

Okay. Based on the average weight of a cured goat bladder, how much helium would it need to hold to float? Would one bladder be large enough, or is it a composite balloon we’re talking here?
Seams sealed with pitch?

Peace,
Lighter Than Air

A bit of research indicates that it won't float, a bladder weighs about 50 g and displaces about half of a litre. Helium provides 1.13 g lift per l. So a bladder needs to be on a stick.

Another problem is that you need gold-beaters skin to contain helium, that is from a cows intestine, not a goat.

Last edited by Peerie Maa; 12-07-2017 at 11:29 AM.

It really is quite difficult to build an ugly wooden boat.
The power of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web
The weakness of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web.

Re: Scientific knowledge

Re: Scientific knowledge

A bit on evolution

An "exceptional" 530-million-year-old fossil contains what could be the oldest eye ever discovered, according to scientists.
The remains of the extinct sea creature include an early form of the eye seen in many of today's animals, including crabs, bees and dragonflies.
Scientists made the find while looking at the well-preserved trilobite fossil.
These ancestors of spiders and crabs lived in seas during the Palaeozoic era, between 541-251 million years ago.
They found the ancient creature had a primitive form of compound eye, an optical organ that consists of arrays of tiny visual cells, called ommatidia, similar to those of present-day bees.
<snip>

The right eye of the fossil, which was unearthed in Estonia, was partly worn away, giving researchers a clear view inside the organ.
This revealed details of the eye's structure and function, and how it differs from modern compound eyes.
The species had poor vision compared with many animals today but it could identify predators and obstacles in its path, researchers believe.
Its eye consists of approximately 100 ommatidia, which are situated relatively far apart compared to contemporary compounds eyes, the team have found.No lens

Unlike modern compound eyes, the fossil's eye does not have a lens.
The team believe this is likely to be because the primitive species, called Schmidtiellus reetae, lacked parts of the shell needed for lens formation.
Prof Brigitte Schoenemann, of Cologne University, who was also involved in the study, said: "This may be the earliest example of an eye that it is possible to find.

Re: Scientific knowledge

Originally Posted by P.I. Stazzer-Newt

More suitable science...

Stanley actually appeared in the first ever episode of Kenneth Horne's original (and later to be long-running under various guises) comedy series along with stalwarts Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick and Ron Moody. He played 'Mr Henry Spindlethroe of the International Atomic Research Association' in a three-minute sketch where he answered Ken's queries about atomic power in his own peculiar way.

Horne's early demise was a great loss.

It really is quite difficult to build an ugly wooden boat.
The power of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web
The weakness of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web.

As it turns out, they probably aren't.
After poring over the data, engineers and physicists noted a recurring pattern 33 days long that affected the decay rates of the various radioactive substances. That's a pattern that corresponds to the rotation of the Sun's core. Which got the physicists to thinking that maybe the sun was involved. But the only explanation that makes sense would be solar neutrinos -- which leads to a result that means, as one of the researchers observed, "What we're suggesting is that something that doesn't really interact with anything is changing something that can't be changed."

OK did you find out what the half life of Potassium40 might be? Go and do that and then comment on what difference a 33 day cycle of variation might make.

Carbon14 is a non issue as it is already calibrated for variation in C14 production variations.

It really is quite difficult to build an ugly wooden boat.
The power of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web
The weakness of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web.